Crate and method of making the same



April 23, 1935.

w. H. SHAFFER, JR 1,998,850

CRATE AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed March 27, 1933 INVENTOR 4/ I /y,

Patented Apr. 23, 1935 UNITED STATES PA ENT OFFICE CRATE AND METHOD OF. MAKING THE William H. Shaffer, J12,

SAME

Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to Pittsburgh Steel Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application March 27,

2 Claims.

shaped articles.

One object of my invention is to provide a method of making crates of the character referred to, in a very simple manner and at low cost.

. Another object of my invention is to provide a crate that is possessed of relatively great strength for a given weight and amount of material.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a crate of the character referred to wherein there are no protruding members to catch on the clothing or hands of the users, or on conveyors, chutes, etc., or which are readily subject to damage.

A further object of my invention is to provide a crate of the character referred to wherein provision is made for facilitating stacking or piling of the crate in tiers Without liability of the crates tilting or moving relative to each other.

One form which my invention may take is shown in the accompanying drawing wherein Figure l is a perspective View of a partially completed crate; Fig. 2 is a cross sectional View of a completed crate; Fig. 3 is a side view thereof; Fig. 4 is a view taken on the line IV-IV of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan View showing a modified form of crate; Fig. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view. showing a modification of the structure of Fig. 2, and Fig. 7 is a View indicating the manner of stacking the crates constructed as shown in Fig. 6.

. The metal parts of the crate are shown as formed of welded wire fabric which may conveniently be manufactured by welding machines of various well-known types, the strips of fabric being sheared to suitable lengths and assembled to form a crate as hereinafter. described.

The main body portion of the crate is formed from a strip of fabric and comprises marginal wires or rods 5 and 6 to which are welded transverse or stay wires T at suitable intervals. Intermediate strand wires 8 are welded to the transverse wires l. The bottom is composed of longitudinal wires 9 and transverse stay wires l0, welded together. The wires It) may suitably be of heavier material than the wires 9, and spaced farther apart, since the wires 9 are close enough to properly support the bottoms of bottles or other articles.

In manufacturing the crates, the wire mesh 1933, Serial No. 662,902

made on a welding machine may be cut into suitable lengths to form sides and ends of the crate, while fabric from another machine may be cut in suitable lengths to form the bottom of the crate.

The first-named strip is bent along three separate transverse lines, to bring it to rectangular form.- This bending maybe effected about, a square form, or in any other suitable manner. At an intermediate stage in the bending-operation, or previous to the bending, the bottom mesh may be positioned so that when the ends of the fabric are broughttogether to complete the rectangle, the ends of the bars 9 and i!) will overlie the marginal rod 6. Thereupon, the ends of the band forming the side and end walls may be Welded together or connected by metal clips i2, as shown more clearly in Figs. 3 and 4.

The ends of the bottom wires 9 and I 0 are then welded or soldered to the lower marginal bar 6, and the structure can then be considered completed and ready to be used for various pur poses. The right angle bends formed in the wires 5, 6 and 8 are preferably made at the corner wires la to facilitate the-proper bending thereof, and so that the wires Ia will be exactly at the corners and add strength thereto. The top and bottom rods orwires 5 and 6 are preferably made heavier than the wires 8, as they are more subjected to blows and stresses.

It will be seen that the wires 9 and Ill do not project past the lower wire 6, and that the structure not'only. has greater strength because of the welded connection, as compared to twisted or bent wire structures, but there are no pro.-

jecting parts to become damaged or to interfere with the convenient handling of the crate.

If it is desired, a lid maybe applied to the crate, such lid consisting of transverse wires l4 and longitudinal wires I5 that may be welded If the crate is being employed as a case for bottles, partitions of cardboard may be placed therein, these partitions being made in somewhat the manner usual in the making of cases for bottles or other breakable articles. That is. to say, the cardboard partitions may consist of a plurality of transversely-extending sheets l8 and longitudinally-extending sheets [9, the sheets I8 and I9 each being spaced apart a dis: tance approximately equal to the diameter of a bottle. The sheets 3 are slitted in their lower edges, and the sheets l9 are slitted downwardly from their upper edges, so that the sheets l8 may be assembled telescopically in edgewise direction, with the unslitted portions of each sheet l8 extending into the slits in the sheets l9, and vice versa. The partition sheets l8 and I!) may be made of sheet metal or wire mesh, instead of cardboard.

Also, the side and end walls of the crate may be lined by cardboard 20 which may be of a single strip of material and bent somewhat after the manner in which the fabric strip forming the ends and sides are bent. The exposed sides of the liner 20 may be decorated and labeled. Where it is desirable to shut out light from the bottles in the case, a cover sheet 2| of cardboard or the like is employed. By bending the edge of the cover sheet down, such a cover can be caused to overlap or telescope with the upper edges of the liner 20, thereby causing the cover to be held in place.

While the structure as shown, has sufficient strength to withstand the piling of the cases in tiers, I contemplate making the crates of such height that the tops of the bottles will come substantially flush with the upper edges of the crates, so that when the crates are piled on one another, the weight of upper bottles will be trans- "mitted directly through the bottoms of the crates to bottles which are immediately beneath.

By flaring the lower edges of the sides and ends as shown more clearly in Fig. 3, the ver tical stays I and la are relieved of the Weight of the bottles, since an upper crate will have its bottom 9--l0 rest directly upon the rod 5 of the crate beneath and on the bottles in the lower case, the rod 6 being stretched sufliciently in bending or of sufficient length that its perimeter is greater than the perimeter of the rod 5. In other words, each rod 5 of the lower crate will fit or nest within the rod 6 of an upper crate. The lower ends of the vertical stays I and la. will be flared outwardly as indicated at 1b. This arrangement has the further advantage that the crates will not slide on one another during transportation.

In Fig. 5, I provide a stiffening or bracing member 23 across each corner of the crate at the upper edge thereof, the member 23 being preferably welded at its ends to the marginal wire 5a. This arrangement not only adds greater rigidity to the crates, but in addition, serves to facilitate the piling of the crates in tiers where the crates are not provided with flared lower edges, since an upper crate can be set directly upon the bracing members of a lower crate, and be supported thereby, even though the upper crate is not aligned accurately with the lower crate. Thus, with crates slightly offset relative to one another in a tier, there will be no tilting of crates, because an oifset crate will be supported by the members 23 of the lower crate.

Referring to Figs. 6 and 7, I show a crate structure which facilitates stacking or piling of the crates in tiers. In this structure, the main body portion and the bottom of the'crate'c'an be formed of welded fabric material assembled in the same manner as the crates of Figs. 1 to 4.

However, as shown in Fig. 6, the upper and lower marginal or rim wires 25 and 26 of the fabric forming the main body portion of the crate are disposed at opposite sides of the transverse or stay wires 21, so that one rim wire will be disposed exteriorly of the sides and ends of the crate While the other rim wire will be disposed interiorly thereof.

By forming the fabric of the main body portion of the crate with oppositely disposed rim wires, the perimeter of one edge of the sides and ends of the crate will be greater than the perimeter of the other edge thereof, so that when the crates are stacked, one crate will nest within a lower crate, somewhat as shown in Fig. '7. The distance one crate will fit within another crate can be augmented by utilizing rim Wires of such gage that they may be readily welded to the stay wires 27 and overlie the ends thereof, and preferably the rim wire 26 will be of heavier material than the other wires of the crate.

I claim as my invention:

1. A crate or the like having a body portion of mesh-like form including horizontal members and stay members disposed in vertical planes, and provided with marginal rods at the upper and lower edges thereof, the stay members being secured to the inner side of the lower marginal rod and to the outer side of the upper marginal rod, and a bottom for the crate, mounted in a plane higher than the plane of the lower marginal rod, the said marginal rods being of similar contours but the area bounded by the lower marginal rod having greater dimensions than the corresponding over-all dimensions of the upper marginal rod.

2. A crate or the like having a body portion of mesh-like form including horizontal strand members and stay members disposed in vertical planes, and provided with marginal rods at the upper and lower edges thereof, the stay members being secured to the inner side of the lower marginal rod and to the outer side of the upper marginal rod, and a bottom for the crate, supported upon the upper side of the lower marginal rod, the said marginal rods being of similar contours, but the area bounded by the lower marginal rod having greater dimensions than the corresponding over-all dimensions of the upper marginal rod.

WILLIAM H. SHAFFER, JR.

strand 

